


Summer Dream

by madamteatime



Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-12
Updated: 2014-02-12
Packaged: 2018-01-12 02:08:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1180645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madamteatime/pseuds/madamteatime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One summer. One summer is all Changmin’s got to make Yunho his and he's drowning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Summer Dream

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fiaj1004](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=fiaj1004).



> [request] Non-au fic of unrequited love, Min pov

Yunho breaks Changmin’s heart on a Monday afternoon.

“I’m getting engaged,” he announces. They’re alone in their dressing room, winding down from a day-long music show recording. 

Outwardly, Changmin barely reacts. He looks up from his phone. “To?” he asks.

Yunho fidgets. “She’s from my hometown. It’s sort of. . .arranged. Our parents have been friends for ages.”

Changmin looks down again. “Oh,” he says. “Congratulations.”

Inside, he quietly breaks apart.

\- - -

Yunho’s fiancé is a lawyer, smart, beautiful and frighteningly competent. She has the engagement party all planned out within a week to both hers and Yunho’s requirements, and the invitations sent out the following week.

It’s all happening too fast. Changmin sits at the kitchen counter and stares down at his invitation – it looks expensive and classy and he hates it. He looks up at Yunho, who is pottering around his kitchen. 

“Why?” he asks.

“Why what?” Yunho doesn’t even turn around.

“Why the sudden rush? Do you even know that woman? Have you met her?”

Yunho gives him a withering look. “Of course I’ve met her – I told you, we’re old family friends. And her name is Heesun, not ‘that woman’. I want you to get along with her.”

Changmin kind of wants to break his face, but they can’t always have everything.

“But why?” he insists. “Why are you getting married?”

“Because I’m not getting any younger and I don’t want to be forty when I have my first kid? Honestly why are you asking me such dumb questions.” Yunho’s gaze shutters. “Besides, you know I’m going to the army soon, and I want to do this before I go. So I know someone’s waiting for me when I get back.”

Changmin is so furious he can’t articulate anything in response.

“I want you to be my best man,” Yunho continues.

“I – ” The red haze clears from Changmin’s vision and leaves a sort of dull, aching thump behind. “Okay,” he hears himself say.

He isn’t happy about it.

No bridesmaid who’d rather be the bride ever is.

\- - -

“I can’t believe he’s getting married,” Changmin moans into his beer, and sprawls halfway across Kyuhyun’s coffee table.

“I can’t believe you’re surprised about it,” Kyuhyun says. He’s only on his second glass, whereas Changmin is already floating in that amber space where his brain-to-mouth filter disappears and he’s only half aware of what’s spilling out.

“This wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“You always knew this day would come.”

“It’s happening too soon!”

“The man’s almost thirty.”

Changmin raises his head and glares at Kyuhyun. “Exactly who’s side are you on?” he growls.

“The side of reason, which is the only side that matters in any argument,” Kyuhyun sips his beer and ignores Changmin muttering something that sounds suspiciously like _pretentious bastard._

“As if reason has anything to do with it!” Changmin grabs Kyuhyun’s shoulders and shakes him. “Reason is for assholes who don’t have feelings – ”

“Alright I think it’s your bedtime,” Kyuhyun says, dragging Changmin to his feet. They stumble to his room as Changmin mumbles incoherently into his shoulder.

“Not fair. . .s’not fair. . .”

Kyuhyun sighs. “How many years have you been in love with Yunho hyung now?” he asks.

Changmin looks at him with wide, unfocused eyes. “I – I lost count,” he says mournfully.

“Never understood why you didn’t just tell him,” Kyuhyun says as he dumps Changmin on his bed.

“I couldn’t – what if I lost him?” Changmin says fretfully. “It’s not worth the risk.”

“I’d say you did a pretty good job of losing him anyway – he’s getting married, remember.”

Changmin’s eyes fill with tears and Kyuhyun immediately feels like a jerk. He sits on the bed and pats Changmin’s back as he sobs into his shoulder, loudly and with abandon.

“You are – such – a dickhead!” Changmin cries.

“I know,” Kyuhyun sighs. “I’m sorry.” 

“I don’t want to lose hyung, I can’t lose him, I want to be with him always – ” Changmin hiccups.

“Well if you think about it now is probably the perfect time to confess your feelings to him. You’ve got nothing to lose because you’re about to lose him anyway.”

Changmin stops crying and looks at him with red, watery eyes. “Do you really think so?” he asks.

“I have no idea. I’m just talking out of my ass,” Kyuhyun admits. 

He watches Changmin sleep for a while after that and wonders if he just did the right thing.

\- - -

“I’m breaking up hyung’s engagement,” Changmin announces the next morning. He’s still at Kyuhyun’s house, nursing a pot of coffee and a massive hangover.

Kyuhyun squints at him. “Are you still drunk?”

“I’ve never been more sober,” Changmin says aggressively. “You were right last night – this is my chance. I’ve got nothing to lose, it’s now or never to make him mine – ”

“This seems like a really bad idea – ” Kyuhyun starts.

“ _Brilliant_ plan!” Heechul says from behind them. They both jump and Kyuhyun whirls around to glare at him. 

“How’d you get in here?” he demands. Heechul ignores him.

“So how are we going to do it?” he asks, sliding up beside Changmin. 

“Uh – I haven’t really – ”

“We are not doing this!” Kyuhyun howls.

“Shut up Kyuhyun,” Heechul puts a hand over his face and pushes him away. He turns to Changmin. “You listen to me. That woman is all wrong for Yunho. There’s no spark between them, no chemistry – a man needs chemistry!” He grabs Changmin by the shoulders. “That man is your man.”

Changmin nods furiously. “Yes.”

“Who stuck with him through thick and thin? Who supported him through all the hard times and shared his joy in all the good ones?”

“Me. I did, I did all that,” Changmin says.

“Who deserves to be by his side more than anyone else in the world?”

“Me!” Changmin jumps to his feet. “I do!”

Heechul pats his butt. “Go get him tiger.”

Changmin trips over a side table and goes sprawling on the floor.

\- - -

He, Heechul and a reluctant Kyuhyun strategise, since it’s clear that on his own Changmin is sort of pathetic and more than a little incompetent. Yunho leaves for the army at the end of the summer, which gives him less than two months to break up an engagement, confess his undying love and make Yunho his.

The problem with seducing Yunho isn’t that it would be difficult – it’s that they’re already so close any overtures he makes would just be regarded as a normal interaction by Yunho. Short of slamming him up against a wall and sticking his tongue down his throat – a prospect Changmin is not opposed to – he can’t really think of any way to express his feelings that he hasn’t already done at some point.

“Take him to the beach,” Kyuhyun drawls without taking his eyes off his video game.

Changmin swivels around on his stool. “What?”

“The beach, numbnuts. Sunshine, minimal clothing, watermelon, fireworks at night – it’ll be super romantic.”

Heechul perks up. “That sounds perfect. I’ll get the gang together.”

Changmin sneaks up behind Kyuhyun and wraps his arms around his neck. “Aw you _do_ care,” he coos.

“Ew get off me.”

Changmin cackles and plants a sloppy kiss on his cheek.

\- - -

‘The gang’, as Heechul calls it, is an assortment of their closest friends within the company – mostly other SM idols, a few actors and a couple of staff members. It’s hard to find a day when everyone’s free, but it eventually comes around one lazy August day and Changmin couldn’t be more grateful.

Things have been kind of sour between him and Yunho ever since he asked him to be his best man. Everything Changmin does seems to fall flat – Yunho is simultaneously cold, distracted or just plain abrasive. Maybe he’s stressed from the upcoming engagement, but that doesn’t explain why Yunho is so sweet and cheerful around everyone else and so grumpy around Changmin.

They pile into a couple of vans and drive off around the afternoon. Everyone’s more than ready for a day off and being louder than ever with excitement. With so many celebrities in one place privacy is key – which is why, Heechul gleefully informs Changmin on the way, he had made Siwon buy a beach just for the occasion.

“He _bought_ a beach?” Changmin splutters.

“It’s Siwon,” Heechul says by way of explanation. He nods towards Yunho. “How’s the mission going?”

Yunho hasn’t said a word to him all day.

“I’m crashing and burning hyung,” Changmin says frantically. “Do something.”

Heechul rolls his eyes. “Why do I have to do everything myself around here?”

Changmin puts on his best puppy dog eyes. “You were always my favorite,” he says sweetly.

“Darling I’m everyone’s favorite.”

\- - -

Changmin’s seen many beautiful sights in his time, but nothing quite compares to watching the sunset on a beach. 

He’s drying off on a towel, clad in swimming trunks, the sand warm and soft under him. Some of their friends are still playing in the water, while others lounge under the tents. Not far off he can see Siwon, Sungmin and Ryeowook setting up fireworks.

Unsurprisingly, Yunho is part of the group in the water, shamelessly splashing Yoona and Sooyoung while they squeal and try to run away. Eventually they find backup in Tiffany and Seohyun and the four of them gang up on him, and Changmin laughs softly as Yunho disappears under a pile of girls.

“God, I wish someone would look at me like that.”

Changmin looks around as Kyuhyun drops down beside him. “Like what?”

“Like you want to ravage him but also maybe bake him cakes and take care of him when he’s sick.”

Changmin flushes, embarrassed at having been read so easily. Kyuhyun smiles and nudges his shoulder.

“Just go talk to him.”

Changmin groans. “I don’t know how! Everything I say these days just rubs him the wrong way – ”

“Talk. To. Him.” This time Kyuhyun shoves him, and Changmin stumbles upright with a grunt. 

He strolls down to the shore, the sunset elongating his shadow across the sand. Yunho is laughing with Heechul now, the two of them plotting something against Kangin from the looks of it.

Changmin clears his throat and Yunho looks around, still smiling. It fades when he sees who it is and Changmin’s gut wrenches a little.

“Want to go for a walk?” he asks.

“Not really,” Yunho says moodily.

Heechul coughs and nudges his back. “Go on,” he says. Yunho glances at him and something unspoken passes between them.

Yunho sighs and gets out of the water. “Okay. Let’s go.”

Behind his back, Heechul gives Changmin an encouraging wink. Heechul’s a shark, but kind of like one of those well-meaning ones from Finding Nemo.

They walk along the beach in silence, the sound of their party slowly fading behind them. Changmin is intensely aware of Yunho, half-naked, wet and glistening in the dying light. A warm breeze picks up and lights set up along the beach slowly turn on.

Changmin sighs. The awkward silence is killing him. “So. . .how are the preparations going?”

“They’re going,” Yunho says shortly. 

Changmin stops walking and turns to face him. “Okay. What.”

Yunho stops walking too. “What what?”

“What did I do? Why are you being like this?”

Yunho shrugs. “You didn’t do anything.”

“No I definitely did something. Is it my hair? I’ll change it, just _what_ –”

“No, that was it. _You didn’t do anything_.” Yunho slants him an angry look. “I told you I was getting married and your reaction was – nothing. Does it even matter to you? Do you even care that I’m leaving for the army in two weeks, that I’m leaving you?”

Changmin gapes at him. There’s an angry flush high on Yunho’s cheeks and Changmin doesn’t understand how this happened, how could he have missed – 

“I care so much it’s killing me inside,” he says quietly.

“You have a funny way of showing it,” Yunho growls.

Something inside Changmin snaps. For a second he just stares at Yunho, rendered expressionless and mute.

Then he does the only thing he can think of – he pulls back and punches Yunho in the face.

At first Yunho looks shocked. Then his mouth twists in a snarl and he launches himself at Changmin. They go down in a heap, sand flying everywhere, both of them kicking and scratching at each other with everything they’ve got.

“You bastard!” Changmin yells, pinning Yunho under him. “How could you think I don’t care? How dare you tell me you’re marrying someone and expect me to be happy about it?”

“Why can’t you just be happy for me?” Yunho shouts. “Why’d you have to make me feel guilty about it, like I’m doing something _wrong_ –”

“You are doing something wrong! It’s all wrong – ung – ”

Yunho pushes him off and grabs a chunk of his hair and it fucking _hurts_. Changmin brings a knee up and sinks it in his stomach and Yunho grunts but doesn’t let up. He’s always been the stronger one, even when Changmin had all those muscles and was training every day and Changmin hates him for it, he hates him – 

Someone yanks Yunho off him and then they’re being dragged apart, panting and still spitting fire. The others must have heard the noise and come running; Siwon has Yunho restrained and Changmin thinks Kangin must be holding him, but it’s hard to focus on anything but how much he just wants to keep hitting Yunho.

“If you two could refrain from having domestics in public that’d be great,” Heechul drawls from nearby.

Yunho shakes himself out of Siwon’s grip. 

“Shut up Heechul,” he snarls as he walks away.

\- - -

Changmin winces as Seohyun dabs at his split lip. 

Back at the tents everyone had made a big fuss about their fight, but Heechul had waved it off as just the usual and eventually the others calmed down. Nobody knows where Yunho is but that was probably for the better while he cooled off.

“I can’t believe you brought a first aid kit with you,” Changmin says out of the good corner of his mouth.

“We were going to the beach with my unnies and a bunch of boys. How could I not bring a first aid kit,” Seohyun retorts, and Changmin has to admit she has a point.

She finishes patching him up, calls him an idiot for picking a fight with Yunho oppa, and packs her kit.

“What if he picked the fight with me,” Changmin mutters sullenly.

“I’m sure it was all your fault,” Seohyun says breezily as she leaves.

After a while Kyuhyun wanders over and sits beside him.

“It was all my fault,” Changmin admits. “I hit him first.”

“He probably had it coming,” Kyuhyun says, and Changmin smiles a little. It’s nice to have a friend who’s got your back when it counts.

They watch Siwon and Yoona fiddle with the fireworks, lighting them and then running back up the beach as they start to go off. Someone has built a fire and the flames crackle cheerfully over the sounds of everyone oohing and ahing at the fireworks. Someone else brought portable speakers, and soon music spills onto the beach.

Changmin sighs and gets to his feet. “I should find him shouldn’t I.”

“Yep,” Kyuhyun says. “He’s probably lying somewhere bleeding to death.”

“I didn’t hit him that hard,” Changmin protests, but worry squirms through him. He borrows Seohyun’s first aid kit and wanders off in the direction Yunho went.

He finds him sitting on an outcrop of rock, throwing pebbles into the ocean below. Changmin climbs up beside him and holds the kit up.

“Truce?” 

Yunho smiles a little and inclines his head. He lets Changmin clean his cuts – there’s one on his lip, two on his knees and another on his elbow. There’s also a bruise blooming on his stomach that Changmin regards guiltily. He’ll find some ice for that later.

“Thanks,” Yunho says when he’s done. 

They sit and watch the ocean for a while. Changmin wraps his arms around his knees and stares out at the horizon.

“Hyung,” he says eventually. “Don’t get married.”

Yunho lets out a long breath. “Why not?” he asks.

“Because. Heesun’s not right for you.” _She’s not me._

“I don’t want to be alone,” Yunho says, very quietly. 

Changmin turns his head to look at him. “You’re not alone. You’ve got me.”

Yunho smiles sadly. “For how much longer though?” 

“For always. Forever.”

Yunho swallows. His eyes are very bright when he faces Changmin. “I thought. . .I thought that maybe if I left first I wouldn't have to deal with you eventually leaving me. But it didn’t hurt any less. It just hurt more.”

“Why would I ever want to leave when I’ve already found where I belong?” 

It’s odd, but somehow the words he’d been looking for were in him all along. Yunho smiles and ducks his head.

His hand reaches across the space between them and curls over Changmin’s. 

\- - -

Yunho breaks off his engagement on a quiet Sunday morning. 

Changmin can hear him in his bedroom, talking slowly and calmly as he explains the situation as best he can. Changmin can tell Heesun isn’t taking it well, because Yunho’s explanations soon devolve into repeated apologies. 

When he emerges into the kitchen he looks shaken and worn out. He sighs and takes a seat at the counter and Changmin puts a plate of pancakes in front of him.

“Here,” he says. 

Yunho smiles a little and picks at the strawberries on the side. There’s an odd sort of tension between them ever since the beach – as though they’re both treading water, careful and unsure of where they stand. Changmin realises it’s their awkward way of courting each other and has to admit it’s not entirely unpleasant.

“How does it feel?” he asks after Yunho’s wolfed down half the stack.

Yunho knows he’s not talking about the pancakes. He swallows and taps his fork against his lips. “Kind of liberating, actually. I don’t think I realised how stressed I was.”

“ _I_ realised,” Changmin grumbles, thinking back on how moody Yunho’s been for the last few months, and Yunho gives him an apologetic smile.

(Yunho leaves for the army the following week, on a humid, overcast day. There’s a press conference, but Changmin wants to say goodbye in private first. 

He turns up at Yunho’s doorstep just as the clouds burst and rain starts bucketing down. He’s immediately soaked, but Changmin doesn’t care that he probably looks like a drowned rat when Yunho opens the door.

“I want to say goodbye properly,” he says. 

Yunho blinks. “You want to come in and say it?” 

Changmin shifts and pushes wet hair off his forehead. “No no, I’ll just say it out here.” Yunho looks really good in that tight white tee and army pants and it’s very distracting.

“You’re getting wet,” Yunho points out.

Changmin makes a frustrated sound. “Who cares just – shut up for a second okay?”

Yunho looks amused but does as he says. Changmin bites his lip.

“I just want you to know that I’ll always be there, okay?” he says over the rain. “No matter what. So this isn’t really a goodbye, because I’ll see you again soon enough.” 

Yunho’s face softens. “You’re really going to wait two whole years for me?”

Changmin wants to laugh. 

“No you stupid bastard,” he says, blinking water out of his eyes. “I’m going to wait a lifetime for you.”

The rain pours down, loud and deafening. Yunho steps outside, uncaring that he gets instantly soaked, his eyes fixed on Changmin. He curls a hand in Changmin’s wet hair, tugs his head down and kisses him.

It’s a wet, trembling, perfect sort of kiss.

It tastes more like hello than goodbye.)

**Author's Note:**

> [Part 2: Changmin visits Yunho on his day off](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1182317)


End file.
